DaVinciCode: I'm actually HAPPY I watched it!

i watched that movie yesterday: yup, the Da Vinci Code. i watched it for the same reason i read the book: to attack, to discredit, to debunk. they said it attacks, discredits, debunks Christianity. i had to read for myself. (plus my dear younger brother was getting curious. protect!)

so up front, but now on hindsight, i must apologize. i gave it its day in court, but i was like the prosecuting attorney, or maybe the defense, in an all-too-controversial trial. in any case, i was too guarded to the point of being hostile.

while reading the book i was like, “HU-WHAT?!?!” so many times. (pls. see the previous blog entry for details.) and i was wary because i remember a washing of hands at the end. after all the allegations, the current Vatican and the Pope were cleared, they possibly couldn’t have known of it nor had any part in it, et cetera. (yes now would be a good time to remind me it’s fiction, but let me continue.) after all the shady deals and the implied conspiracies (and the explicit ones?) we now have an oh-no-they-couldn’t-possibly-have-any-part-in-it. it’s like digging up dirt --- literally --- and then saying this dirt does not apply to the current situation nor season. not fair. really getting away with it.

so here comes the movie. groan. even though i resent giving my ‘financial support’ to both the book and the movie, i had to know what i was up against. (see, that word again. too hostile at the start.)

another apology is in order (aren’t i so guilty today): sorry to all my fellow moviegoers if i ruined your moviegoing experience. there were two, three, four times i was saying loudly, “Not true!” plus one time with a longer explanation. good thing my two friends knew i was probably going to do that before we even went to the mall. problem is, the other moviegoers didn’t. i was torn between carrying a protest placard and blocking the entire screen, and letting them travel their own journey of faith alone. (but having a blog shows that i have much to say, and i’m not going to watch someone being fooled in front of me and not do anything about it.)

so how come even before the movie’s end i was telling my friend that i’m happy i watched it?

so i’ve been an annoying moviegoer. but there were two, three times i was literally going to open my mouth and then…Robert Langdon speaks. Sophie Neveu speaks. balance is restored.

i don’t mean the “balance between good and evil”. (have you ever thought how absurd it is to want to have a balance like that? why would you want 50% evil in your life?) i mean the balance between prosecution and defense, between allegation and possibility, between attack and acceptance.

i get the intentions of those who want the movie banned. maybe i wanted the movie banned myself. (though now i'm glad it’s not! :) ) i’m just worried, you see. i’m worried for the others who would have their faith shaken to the point that they won’t listen to anything the Bible or the Church says. it’s been said that what we suspect in others are actually what we ourselves are guilty of. i'm not suspecting anyone of anything but i'm saying it’s possible for them, exactly because i was guilty of it a long time ago. i watched “Stigmata”, which interestingly wasn’t even given a second glance by the censors and critics, and whatever remained of my faith in God and the Church dissolved. back then anyway (only five years ago).

i remember just asking God to reveal Himself, to separate the truth from the lies…and i remember that my own walk of faith was once just defined to be going around in circles, if not just lying around sleeping. and yes, since i do know about God and that that is true, then i could rest knowing that they will come upon those same truths too, in God’s own timing. (even while realizing this early on in the movie, i still had anxieties. i wanted everyone to come upon the truth and not fall away because of the movie. worry worry. hence my being a noisy annoying moviegoer.)

balance. fairness. in the movie and in the book, balance and fairness was advocated between the genders. but i appreciate seeing a more significant balance, that between truth and speculation. i was just listening to a radio talk show and the last comment regarding the movie was that it was a blessing in disguise. true, it’s not often that Hollywood gives Jesus the center stage. and people are now talking about God once again. in two separate days i got to share with three people why the Bible is true, including with our Institute Director :)

i could worry endlessly, or i could do my part and share what i know is true. and claiming to know God, do i still have cause to worry? this was mentioned as that same radio show ended: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).”

what about those who don’t love God or don’t know if they’ve been called? just a few sentences later, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

moviegoer, reader, both or neither, i hope people will realize that like Robert Langdon, we are all just going about our own self-absorbed lives until we get caught up in a search for the truth. each one of us has to figure out the answers because it really is a matter of life and death. seek! my worrying self wants to just wave my arms wildly to catch everyone else’s attention.

i think it’s about time i remind myself of this: :)

“For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out [his sheep] that have been scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness (Ezekiel 34:11-12).’”

so let Your light shine, God. and open up our eyes :)